Author: Connor Lawson

I struggled most with my Self-control virtue. I selected this virtue because I know that I need to eat healthier and gain and retain healthy eating habits so that when I am older and my metabolism drops, I won’t get fat and unhealthy. I seriously fear getting fat and being unhealthy in the future, that is why this self-control virtue, to limit my intake of candy, junk food, and other sweets, is so important to me. I know I exercise currently, and I hope I can carry this habit into the future, at least it will be easier to do so than a healthy eating habit, since I’ve already developed a habit of exercising. During this blog, I had ups and downs regarding Self-control, somedays I would do great, not eating any junk food or sweets. Then, on other days, I could eat 3 donuts. My problem was consistency with my virtue, if I had just kept with it the whole time I would feel much better about it.

I did succeed most with regard to my tranquility virtue, of which I interpreted as keeping calm and not getting upset at trivial issues. I believe this success is because I was already a somewhat tranquil person, so I didn’t get upset unless it was warranted or needed, such as communicating in a soccer game, which is a place where you cannot be tranquil. I did benefit from this progress, because as I realized, to calm myself down about certain issues, I just have to remind myself that it’s not worth it to get angry. Just a simple reminder to myself, which started because I didn’t want to break my virtue, has helped me a lot. This is important to me because I don’t enjoy getting angry, I don’t think anyone does, especially over trivial things. So being able to not get mad over these  small incidents makes me a much happier and overall better person.

I was able to improve in some aspects of myself, but one can only do so much in 10 days. I believe I started on the path to creating some good habits, wether I ultimately failed or not. I now know a way in which I can truly calm myself down quickly. I also know that if I want to improve myself in the future, all I need to do is give myself constant reminders of what I am trying to improve and that if I keep it in the front of my mind, and one of my first thoughts throughout the day, then I can achieve my goal. If I let it slip to the back of my mind, then I start compromising myself by forgetting or choosing to abandon the virtue for a moment. I think this is why I did bad on some days with certain virtues and good on other days, I could never fully focus on all five virtues at once. I do not find myself incorrigible, and I have found a way, or formula almost, to improve myself.

For this day, I did well with my tranquility, which I haven’t had much trouble with throughout this blog. This is also similarly true with my honesty virtue, which I did well on today. Today, I was okay with my self control, I had a huge amount of chips which I snacked on, but I had no candy or sweets, which I consider worse than chips in terms of how healthy they are. I was sincere today as well, which it wasn’t very hard to be, as I wasn’t really tested in this field of virtue today. I didn’t need to study for any tests today, which I am thankful for, as I thought there was going to be a surge of tests before the break, but there weren’t too many, in fact I only had one test.

For this day, I did much better than yesterday with my self control, which was my main goal for this day. I didn’t eat any junk food or candy or sweets at all. I did study for a little bit right before my AP physics exam, which I think I did okay on. I don’t think I did fantastic, but the refresher before the test helped a lot. For honesty, I technically did lie today. I lost my shoes at soccer practice and I didn’t tell my parents I’ll get them back tomorrow, but I didn’t tell them, and hopefully they don’t find out. I was also good with my tranquility and sincerity virtues.

For this day, I studied for an AP physics test that is happening tomorrow. I studied for about an hour, but still wasn’t extremely confident and sure about everything. I should have studied more, but I hope the test goes well. For my self control, I did horrible, I ate 3 donuts. This is obviously not what I should have done, but they tasted so good. I was honest and tranquil today. As well as being sincere. So, overall, today was bad. I should have been able to follow my virtues closer today, but knowing I was breaking them I still did it.

For this day, I was okay with my self-control virtue, I snacked on some chips, but that was it. I was able to control myself from eating anything worse. I did well with tranquility and honesty as I did not lie or get upset at all during the day. I was sincere today, as I kept all of my promises, even if they were minuscule promises, and I didn’t make many promises to keep to begin with. I didn’t study for anything as there was no need, I do not have any tests coming up very soon. So, overall, it was a decent day.

For this day, I was great with my self control virtue as eating well, and not junk food, was needed to get through the game I had this day. I was still not very tranquil or honest as usual, but I toned it down slightly from yesterday, as we were playing an easier team. Off the field I did great with tranquility and honesty, just to note. For sincerity, there wasn’t anything to be sincere about this day, as I didn’t promise anything to anyone. I did finish my homework, but there was no need to be studious and study as I didn’t have a test the next day.

For this day, I finally was able to wake up on time, achieving the sincerity towards my promises to wake up early. Though, this was because I had a soccer game this morning and was required to get up early and not sleep in. It was much harder to keep up with my tranquility virtue today. I was constantly getting annoyed with my teammates for the duration of the game, which is usual. I did lie a few times to the referee, which wasn’t in line with my honesty virtue. I had great self-control when it came to eating that day, because I needed to eat well in order to recover to play the next game. I completely ignored any studying or homework all together. It was hard to focus on my virtues this day, as I had two games, so I wasn’t as focused on them, so it wasn’t the best day in terms of keeping true to my virtues.

For this day, I was able to get back on track with my self control virtue. I did not eat any junk food today at all, in preparation for my games on the weekend and to make up for yesterday. I wasn’t very sincere with myself as I made a promise to myself to get up right away, but instead I slept in for 15 minutes. Once again I did well with tranquility. I did well with my honesty virtue. I didn’t have anything to study for this day, but I did some of my homework for the weekend instead of waiting until Sunday.

For this day, I had a small slip up with my self-control virtue as I ate an ice cream bar, but I hope to do better tomorrow. I did well with my honesty virtue again as so far there has been no temptation to lie. I was able to keep calm for today, which was not hard as nothing really annoyed me this day. I had to study for a physics quiz this day, I could have studied for longer, but it was only a quiz and I felt confident on the material that would be on the quiz. So, overall, it was a good day.